BEACHWOOD, Ohio -- DDR Corp. is cutting its headcount again as the shopping-center landlord refashions itself into a more compact company.

During a Tuesday evening conference call, executives confirmed a recent round of layoffs - "changes we had over the past week," said David Lukes, the publicly traded real estate investment trust's chief executive officer and president.

He didn't divulge details. And DDR didn't respond to a request for comment after the call, which followed the company's first-quarter earnings report. But sources familiar with the company said the cuts totaled 50 positions, most of them in Beachwood, including senior leasing professionals.

Since March of 2017, when a new, New York-based management team took the helm, DDR has cut approximately 125 jobs. During Tuesday's call with analysts and investors, Lukes noted that the company also is hiring, in Columbus, Atlanta and other markets, to support redevelopment projects.

"But when it comes to positions that are no longer available at the company, it's really due to size," he said. "The company has changed dramatically in size but not dramatically in focus. We're focused on a much smaller group of assets."

As of March 31, DDR owned 258 shopping centers on its own or with joint-venture partners. That's down from 309 centers a year before.

And executives plan to spin off dozens of slower-growth properties, including the company's Puerto Rico holdings, into a separate company in July, with the goal of selling them off over two to three years. The spin-off will quickly streamline what DDR has left in a bid to make the company more attractive to investors.

"I'd say our company is now rightsized for that strategy, which we outlined in December," Lukes said during the conference call.

As of January 31, the company had 447 full-time employees, a regulatory filing shows. It now appears that employment at DDR, long among Beachwood's largest employers, has dipped below 400 people.

"I don't think this comes as a surprise," said Alexander Goldfarb, an analyst who queried executives about the layoffs during Tuesday's call.

Goldfarb, a managing director at Sandler O'Neill and Partners in New York, said the staff cutbacks aren't having a negative impact on DDR's performance, so far. But, "from an organizational standpoint ... you clearly want to make people comfortable that these rounds of layoffs are it. That's where leadership comes in."

During an interview, Goldfarb said analysts wanted assurances that the loss of senior leasing executives will not make it tough for DDR to keep tenants, complete the spin-off plan, finish complicated redevelopment projects and find new uses for empty spaces, including the stores that Toys R Us is shuttering.

"Despite all the news headlines about the death of retail, there actually are retailers who haven't gotten those memos and continue to lease space," he said.